TMC turns to 'Yuva' clan for ground work

KOLKATA: Relying on youth power, Trinamool Congress entrusted young leaders of the party with the task of gauging its prospects in the ensuing state Assembly polls. The young leaders — with whose faces the locals weren't familiar — were sent to various districts before each phase to interact with the ground-level workers, sources said on Friday.

Sources in the TMC said around 50 Yuva leaders were sent to Nandigram before the polls to assess the prospect of TMC. The Yuva leaders had categorised the Bengal districts into several segments and based on TMC's performance in the earlier polls and the data submitted by the I-PAC team members regarding each and every constituency based on the positive and negative aspects, the Yuva leaders visited each constituency and assessed the performance of the party.

"Based on the strategies developed by the party's leadership, they work on the ground," sources within the party said.

A senior TMC leader said this year even few candidates were selected from the batch of 'Yuva leaders' so that they feel equal with the other candidates.

For instance, Narottam Biswas, the candidate from Gaighata constituency, is a member of the Yuva clan. He had worked hard for the past two years in his constituency silently to increase the TMC's network.

"Gaighata is a reserved constituency. In my constituency, 45 per cent people belong to the Matua community. Majority of the people came from Bangladesh as the area is near the border district. Although anti-incumbency wave surfaced during 2019 Lok Sabha polls in this segment, later people lost faith in BJP. They are not convinced with the BJP's promise of Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This has resulted in an additional advantage for TMC," Biswas said.